The carbon pollution reduction scheme has been hijacked by the political theatre. It is unfortunate that most commentators are presenting this as pretty bitter medicine to swallow. Some advocate that we have no choice and others say that we have to wait. Very few people are talking about the positive aspects of CO2 reduction policies.

Therefore, while the Liberal Party is agonising over its response to the CPRS bill and while some pundits from the finance sector are predicting doom and gloom if the bill passes the Senate, it would be refreshing to report on calmer commentary from overseas. One such commentary comes from the CEO of Vattenfall, Lars Josefsson. Vattenfall is a large electricity generating company owned by Swedish government with heavy investments in coal-fired power generation in Germany and Poland. The company is not apologising for investment in coal-fired plants, "we do not invest in coal because we love coal," Power Engineering International reports Mr Josefsson: "We invest in coal because the people in Germany and Poland need electricity. Our job is to over time turn them into zero emissions plants."

Josefsson is also the chairman of the Combat Climate Change, which is a group of over 60 large energy companies that includes not only the Western companies like BP, GE, Unilever but also developing world members, such as China National Offshore Oil and Russia's Gazprom. In an interview with the Financial Times, Josefsson has called on governments to agree on binding climate change emission cuts: "The necessary investments will only be made when you have a binding treaty and legislation. Of the money required to implement a deal, the vast majority – about 80 per cent – will come from the private sector. That can only come when there is a stable legal framework."

The figure shows the cost of different CO2 emission reduction measures as prepared by Vattenfall and published in a Combat Climate Change document. The main conclusions are

• Significant emission abatements can be made at a low cost, and some have no or “negative” costs - they save money immediately
• Opportunities are fragmented across sectors and regions
• Most abatement opportunities until 2030 can be captured with technology that is available commercially today.

One should remember that this chart has been prepared by a large utility company and adopted by a consortium of the world's largest energy companies. It puts our little discussion here in Australia into perspective, doesn't it?